What we need is expanding community and somewhat easier usage, such as more user-friendly password system ...

You are completely right! Also the sign in process partly still seems to cause problems to some of the people I invite to join Steemit. One of them just sent me the following chat message:
"I tried to make an account, but they put me in waiting list and told me I ll get a welcome mail, but I didn't receive any email nor any confirmation yet."
Way to complicated - too many people will be discouraged by things like that.